Tuesday, December 26, 2006

Stop the Hypocritic Express!

Belated Merry Christmas to all!

Two postings from a recent thread (which I intentionally brought to a close) which demand reacting to:

Anonymous said...

I have been a faithful reader of this blog. I have also provided information which I probably should not have. If my identity was discovered, I could be in big trouble and possibly without a job. Given the fact that this site has allowed "nasty" people like dad29 to spread harmful rumors, I will provide no information in the future. I would not be able to live with the slimey feeling.

Monday, December 25, 2006 11:09:00 AM

First off, even I was not so addicted to the words of wisdom that appear herein that I was able to get here on Christmas Day.

Second, if you could get fired, I can only guess that your own boss might think you are "nasty". But, you made postings because you thought it was, in the end, the right thing to do. Maybe you wanted something to be different. Other posters to this blog might think that the public perceptions that are created by this "cohabitation" are worth raising questions about. If you have some unwritten right to violate the trust of your boss, that seems to be of a different order than a member of the Catholic faithful asking questions about accountability. Please, don't try to make your risk seem like the high road.

Anonymous said...

You people are sick sick sick. Amazing how your speculation leaps (no, sprints!) to laying blame on lefties and barely muting your hatred of gays. No wonder people look on us as a bunch of modern day Klansmen.

Tuesday, December 26, 2006 10:56:00 AM

Whoa. The second stop on the Express train.

Lefties? Where at all are they mentioned at all?

Hatred of gays? Two things here: 1) You may not like it, but the behavior is still a moral problem in the Church and, I would add, that the political aspects of what seems to be Mr. Montoya's agenda are open to criticism for many reasons; 2) Homosexual or otherwise, a priest cohabitating with a man or a woman begs some questions from those members of the Catholic faithful who are scandalized by it.

Now don't give me that tired "but there may be a good explanation" tripe. When there is one good explanation among a dozen bad ones, the role of the questioner is either to allow the clarification of the reason to benefit all (especially, in this case the dignity of the priesthood and all priests), or to indicate the need for a correction in behaviors.

Folks, perceptions are real (just turn on your TV), and for public people like our priests, there is an even greater responsibility to attend to those perceptions and how they are created or reinforced.

For the last forty years one of the great criticisms of the Church has been a lack of accountability among priests and bishops. It may be a somewhat course dialogue that occurs on blogs like this, but it is certainly one of the few mechanisms to either express frustration that there is no real accountability here in the Archdiocese of Milwaukee or it could be the mechanism that might just bring about some of that accountability.

These priests can't have both ways...all the rights they want, but none of the responsibilities that many of us bear as well.

Sunday, December 17, 2006

Cheap Grace?

It has been reported here by an anonymous poster to the last thread that St. Mary's Parish, Hales Corners, will be offering general absolution for anyone who happens into the church on Wednesday, December 20th. Other than the parish bulletin making an odd distinction between "Communal Reconciliation" and "Individual Reconciliation", I have not found conclusive proof that this will occur. But, since Fr. Chuck will likely be out shopping for new ties, and Mary Matestic will be the presider at the service, I can find it believable. If someone knows for sure, please let me know.

The problem for all of us simple, hopeful Catholics, is that we are left with no good option to trust him. Here are the choices that I see: either the Archbishop:

a) has no intention of having his warm fuzzy words be matched with any actions;b) says one thing, but (at least tacitly) approves of something else; or,c) when confronted with dissenting activities, he does nothing to discipline the wayward priests or diocesan center bureaucrats.

For a little more perspective, from what I have been told, the tie-wearing Fr. Charles was already a problem with his questionable practices at his last parish, St. Sebastian's. But, under the present Archbishop, his negative impact is neither corrected nor isolated. Instead, it is moved from a medium sized parish, to a larger stage.

For more useful information that anyone can print off and mail to St. Mary's Parish, or to the Archbishop himself, check out what the Vatican says. (Fr. Cheap-Ties...the Vatican, that's that big Church in Rome.)

Sunday, December 03, 2006

I know I am late.

Marquette’s Department of Theology announces a new “Major in Catholic Theology.” The new major is designed to provide students with the level of preparation more and more required of theology teachers in Catholic high schools across the nation. Although it will officially begin with its listing in the 2007 UNDERGRADUATE BULLETIN, students can already take courses in the program beginning the fall of 2006.

First, the spelling error is in the orignal! Wow, that Jesuit education just keeps on proving itself.

Second,A NEW "Major in Catholic Theology"?NEW?What theology have you been teaching thus far?

I guess this serves as a tacit admission that what Fr. Bobby Wilde's and Fr. Bryan Massingale's theology department have been teaching up to now HAS NOT BEEN CATHOLIC.

Sadly, I fear that one step forward represented by this momentary honesty, will be undermined by the fact that MU's view of things Catholic, went the way of the Warriors a long time ago....this will be no different.

Mike

P.S. A few weeks until my first anniversary as a blogger. 9,694 unique visits thus far. Let's shoot for 10,000 by the 29th! Invite your friends.